Morning journal and courier., 1887-04-01
CARS LIGHTED ax ELECTRICITY.

CARS LIGHTED BY ELECTRICITY. A Boston and Albany Train Passed
 Through on 2he Way to Boston Last
 Night the Cars Inside i n the Brilliant
 Glare of Electric Lights-The New
 Steam Heating Apparatus Also Alp.
 plied-Ehe Experiment a Successful one.
 The express train which leaves New York at o'clock in the afternoon arrives here at 6:22. It makes no stop between New York l and this city, so there is generally very large number who get off and get aboard the train at this station. Last night there was | the usual number, but besides these were 2 others who did not want to take ride. They
 had been told that the cars of the train were | to be lighted with electricity and heated by steam from the engine. So when the whistle
 of the incoming train was heard in the dis tance everybody got out on the platform. When the train hove near bright shadows
 could be seen thrown from the windows of
 the car, which gave the looker-on the idea
 that the light inside must be very strong. l The train came to standstill and then those | who wanted to see the light walked up and down the side of the cars, eyeing intently II l cars, excepting a woman who had child which evidently troubled her and made her | wear a sour countenance, looked perfectly l contented and happy, which was very likely
 due to the fact that they were pleased with l the new light and system of heating. A reporter of the COURIER inquired of @ passenger who was well dressed how he liked 1 the new way of lighting and of heating and | he said: "Why, it is one of the best things I ! know of It is real comfort. You can now read in any part of the car with perfect | ease and not be afraid of hurting your eye | sight. There is a steady light, which we have not had before. The brakemen have
 usually been engaged good part of the time | in turning the kerosene lights either up or down. What we have wanted was strong ' and steady light. Now we have been given I it. consider it great blessing to the tray cling public"
 The reporter ventured so much as to ask petite figure with blue hat, pleasant coun- tenance, regularly featured, how she liked the improvement. "I think it is just too good for anything. It is just lovely. All the people in this car like it. The man who made this thing for the cars is daisy. The car has been very warm ever since we left New York"
 Tommie Stewart, the we'll known porter at the depot restaurant, says he rode on the train and the experiment was entirely grat- flying success. William T. Words of Bos- ton, porter on the train, said that most all the passengers had given excellent signs of approval of the experiment. He had heard no complaints excepting from those in the smoking car. The heating of the car had not been what it should be. The car was rather cold. In all the other cars he had been obliged to turn the steam off number of times, because it heated 50 much. It will take little practice to get the steam regulated just right.
 The cars which passed through last night lighted with electricity and heated with steam in the new way were five in number. They belong to the Boston and Albany road. The train which leaves Boston early each evening will soon be fitted up the same as the train which passed through last night.
 In each car are sixteen small incandescent lights, arranged in two rows through the cars. The glass globules which contain the lights project from the top of the car and are the same kind as the small electric lights in the store windows. The lights are but three or four feet apart, thus giving every two or three seats light. These cars have also new ventilating apparatus. The ventilators are round, about six inches in diameter, and are set into the woodwork very nearly above the aisles of the car. There is also but little space between the ventilators. These cars of the Boston and Albany are un undoubtedly the cosiest in the country. The top of the car is an archway, built of dark mahogany, and comes so low that it makes the car look very small in the interior, whereas it is as large as any others. Their finish would, in the glare of kerosene lights, make the car very dreary and sombre
 Each of these cars has on each platform outside, above and to one side of the car door, larger globule than in the cars. It projects horizontally, and is lighted only at the stations. It throws a brilliant light; and there is no reason why, by it's sharp glare, any passenger shall make misstep in getting aboard or alighting from train. There is also a smaller horizontally projecting light in the vestibule and closets of each car. The clearness of the air in the cars is noticed at once.
 The electric conductors pass under the car. A storage battery of sixty cells, weighing about ton, is placed beneath each car. The box in which this battery is enclosed is very large and reaches very near to the track. It is sufficient at this time of the year to change the batteries at one end of the trip, and they will be changed at Boston.
 The cost of ten hours service for the lights in each car is two dollars. The battery for each car costs $750 and is guaranteed for two years. The lights are sixteen candle power each.
 As regards the heating of the cars by steam from the engine, the trouble has always been as to how the couplings could be made between the cars 90 as to convey the steam without waste. This has to all appearances u. is the inventor of this new way of heating. The Martin system takes the live steam from the engine and con- veys it through the cars by means of an iron pipe, wrapped to prevent conformation, running underneath the entire length of the car, and from which two branch pipes ascend on each side into the car, and branch out into radiating pipes along the sides of the car, which return to the center and pass down into 8 trap or tank beneath. MT. Martins couplings entirely composed of metal, and consist essentially ot a ball and socket-joint at each end of each cara half | ball moving in a hemispherical shell divided in half and screwed together; and to the shell is attached sliding joint | telescoping into larger cylinder. The ball | and socket joint accommodates the connec- | tien to every motion of the train, while the | sliding joints conform to the shock and ex- tension in stopping and starting. It takes | about half an hour to heat the train. The | heat remains from half an hour to an hour after disconnection with the engine. The steam can be turned on or shut off from any car without interfering with the rest of the train. The water of the condensed steam is led by gravitation to the. discharge trap be- heath the center of each car, which automat- cally closes as soon as the steam has filled he pipes.
 \ Prominent Greenwich Man Dead.
 Captain Thomas Mayo, prominent and highly respected resident of Greenwich, died Wednesday. He was man thoroughly iden flied with the growth of Greenwieh was ecretary of the Belle Haven company, and it vas mostly through his energy and public 'pirit that that fine tract of land on the Sound was opened to the public, and is not lotted with cottages.
 
 KILLED BY THE CARS. A Man Run over Near Greenwich by |
 an Aceommo odation Train.
 Officer Ahearn was a passenger on the | New York train which arrived here at 5 | p. m. yesterday. He says that near Green wich the train ran over and killed well | dressed man aged about fifty. From papers | iound it is supposed that the man was John Mcdonald, of Stamford.
 ROADS AND BRIDGES.